A Wednesbury couple who enjoy gardening and attracting wildlife into their lives on the Friar Park Estate have won a top award – for the plant-packed garden they spend all their spare time and holidays in.

Roy and Pauline Edwards have won the Sandwell Homes gardening competition with the best-in-the-borough creation – and say they love to spend all the time they can in their Friar Park haven which attracts lots of birds, including woodpeckers.

Roy said: “We spend all our spare time in it and never go away on holidays – because we love every minute we spend in it. It is so relaxing.”

“Once you have got it straight and attractive it is really quite easy to keep looking good and we love to have lots of flowers around,” he said. “We have about 1,600 plants in the tubs and the garden this year.”

His wife said that she loves to have the birds in the garden. “I hate to hear a quiet garden – and love to hear the birds singing away in ours.

“This year we had coal tits and blackbirds nesting again and wrens also made a nest in the ivies,” she said. “It is lovely that they come to our garden in this way.”

Roy said he was amazed that the garden, which also attracts foxes and squirrels, was such a wildlife haven, particularly because it was so close to the local rail line and the M6 motorway.

The couple have won a £150 voucher, which they have spent on the garden, buying a lawn mower, planters and a chair for their two-year-old grandson Rhylee.

Roy said he was pleased that Sandwell Homes have continued to run the competition annually. “It is a good way of encouraging more people to have attractive gardens and there are a lot more in the Friar Park area these days,” he said.

Sandwell Homes’ chief executive Brian Oakley called at the garden to present the prize to the couple. “It is amazing what attractive gardens our tenants create and it is lovely to see the wonderful standards Mr and Mrs Edwards have attained in their creation”, he said.

Sandwell Homes has launched an innovative scheme to support small-scale projects within communities following consultations with tenants and residents across the borough.

The scheme, called the ‘Community Chest Fund’, allows community groups to apply for grants of up to £500 to support projects including youth activities, sports events, community environmental schemes, and good neighbourhood initiatives.

Edna Barker, tenant representative from Wednesbury, was involved in the development of the scheme. She said: “The community chest is a new and exciting scheme that will enable residents to make a real difference to the communities in which they live, and is an opportunity not to be missed. Pick up the phone and call Sandwell Homes.”

Applications are open to individuals and groups alike, and application packs can be obtained by calling Sandwell Homes business development administration team on 0121 569 5191 or from the following link on this website. The deadline for applications is Friday 5 September 2008.

Further information on the scheme is also available from Dean Wright, community involvement officer, on 0121 569 5046/ 5140 or by email at dean_wright@sandwellhomes.org.uk.

Shirelands Collegiate Academy pupil Harpreet Singh has won a £50 voucher for JJB Sports. He correctly guessed the name of a mannequin dressed as a construction worker at the Sandwell Decent Homes Partnership's recent construction awareness event.

More than 300 school children from 11 secondary schools in Sandwell attended the event held at the West Bromwich Albion football ground in June. The Sandwell Decent Homes Partnership hosted the event in order to educate school children from around the borough of Sandwell about employment opportunities within the UK construction industry.

The day was also a chance for the partnership to tackle the national skills shortage at a local level by highlighting the wide variety of jobs available to the borough’s school leavers. The Sandwell Decent Homes Partnership (SDHP) is a construction framework tasked with ‘decent homes’ refurbishment of 30,000 homes in Sandwell. The Partnership is made up of Taylor Woodrow, Connaught Partnerships, Wates Living Space, Lovell Partnerships, Thomas Vale Construction, Sandwell MBC Urban Design and Rider Levett Bucknall.

The mannequin competition was one of many intitatives held on the day to help generate interest amongst pupils and to raise awareness of the construction industry.

Sandwell Housing Partnership and housing organisation Sandwell Homes have been giving students a helping hand with their design projects, providing expert advice and support to students about to start the final stages of high school.

The students, who are studying art and design qualifications at George Salter Collegiate Academy, were given a brief to produce interior designs for a real community room at Hamstead House, Hamstead, which is currently undergoing refurbishment work by Sandwell Homes.

Sandwell Housing Partnership’s education project manager, Mollie McPherson, thought up the idea to present students with a real life design scenario, helping to put their projects into context.

Following a visit to home furnishing store Ikea to inspire them, the students also benefited from expert advice provided by Charmaine Jarrett, an interior designer within Sandwell Council’s architectural division. She coached and supervised students as they learnt how to use design packages including Photoshop and 3D image generator Google ‘Sketchup’, which will improve their CVs considerably when they apply for college, university and eventually jobs.

On completion of their designs the students were invited to Hamstead House to present their work and to discuss their future aspirations with employees of Sandwell Council, Sandwell Homes and construction partner Lovell.

After showing off her work Sarah Koushir, one of the students to benefit from the initiative, said: “The project was fun. I learned how to use new design software and put my designs into context as part of a realistic project. This has given me a head start towards a career in art and design.”